DES MOINES (March 31, 2021) — Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the state proclamation declaring the month of April to be Safe Digging Month in Iowa, in conjunction with National Safe Digging Month. Common Ground Iowa (CGI) sponsored the proclamation with the support of Iowa One Call.
Proclaiming April as "Safe Digging Month" is an important way to educate Iowans about the importance of having their proposed excavation areas located and marked for underground facilities so they can avoid digging into potentially hazardous, or critical, underground gas or electric lines, communications cables, or water facilities. Iowa law requires all persons planning to engage in any activities that will disturb or displace the earth (eg, digging, excavating, boring, drilling, removing concrete, installing posts, etc) to first notify Iowa One Call by clicking online at www.iowaonecall.com or by dialing 811. This includes homeowners planning to work in their yards, farmers planning to work their fields, and professional contractors planning projects that will entail any type of digging.
The Iowa Attorney General enforces the "Iowa One Call law" (Iowa Code chapter 480) and is authorized to seek civil penalties against any violators, which includes failure to notify Iowa One Call prior to digging. The civil penalties may range from as much as ten thousand dollars for each violation for each day the violation continues, up to a maximum of five hundred thousand dollars.
About Common Ground Iowa
Common Ground Iowa (CGI), a Regional Partner of the national organization Common Ground Alliance (CGA), is a member-driven non-profit organization. CGI works with all stakeholders to produce stronger, more effective results through partnership, collaboration, and the pursuit of common goals in damage-prevention. The purpose of the CGI is to prevent damage to underground infrastructure through education to foster a shared sense of responsibility for the protection of underground facilities. To accomplish this goal, CGI utilizes Common Ground Alliance's Best Practices for advancing underground excavation safety in Iowa. To learn more about CGI, visit commongroundiowa.com.
About Iowa One Call
Iowa One Call is the state of Iowa's underground damage-prevention notification-system that provides users with a single-source/notification process to coordinate the locating and marking of underground facilities located near or within any proposed area of excavation. The notification system is reached by dialing 8-1-1, or electronically by going online at www.iowaonecall.com.
Iowa One Call representatives handle more than 700,000 notices and coordinate more than 3.5 million locate requests annually. The service provided by Iowa One Call is free of charge, including the locating and marking process (which is handled by the underground facility operators — not Iowa One Call). The cost is paid in full by underground facility operators who are required to become members of the Iowa One Call system. Iowa One Call is neither a utility nor a locating service and it does not own facilities nor does it locate underground facilities. To learn more about Iowa One Call, go to http://www.iowaonecall.com.
